Over the holidays I had a chance to shoot skeet with two different 870s. Both were essentially the same gun. One with wood and the other synthetic. Both were also very new, maybe a couple hundred rounds through either one at most. At around the same time, Id say between 50-75 rounds, they both started acting up with the same type of issue. The spent shells were getting stuck in the chamber, usually on the last round. We had to stick a cleaning rod down the barrel to dislodge the shell. We were using Winchester bulk birdshot.

im confused, are the late model basically new 870's or are they new 870's? i have a 12 and 20 and i use the 20 for 3-gun and i have not had any extraction issues shooting/extracting rio, federal, or winchester bulk ammo.

perhaps the ammo was really dirty and there was a good deal of fouling in the chamber. You might want to see if the extractor spring is weak.

Several years ago I bought an 870 Tactical and took it with me to an NRA shotgun class. I had never before shot the gun. Out of two hundred or so shots I suffered at least ten failures to extract. I had taken a couple of the bulk 100 shell boxes but I don't recall if it was Winchester or Federal.

Regardless, I haven't trusted that shotgun since. I haven't even shot it for that matter, since. I went back to my trusted Winchester 1300 which has never let me down.

I really like the look and feel of the 870 and I want to trust it after spending $600 for it, but it just isn't there for me. I'll eventually get it looked at or sell it at a loss. I just have no tolerance for unreliable weapons.

Same here, but I've never owned one. I was wondering if it was an issue isolated to newer production 870s. I will have to say that I've handled plenty of 870s and the older ones seem to be better quality just by the fit and finish. The newer ones seem almost crude in comparison. I think if I ever do pick one up it will be an older model. Ive always liked the old Police Magnums with the wood furniture.

I had this same issue posted on CCF 1.0. Turned out to be ammo related. I had bought tons of the walmart bulk boxes of 100 ct Winchester and 100 ct Federal. The federal shot fine but the winchester got jammed up in every 12 gauge I put it in including browning auto 5. Savage. And rem 870. Unfortunately I can never find the bulk federal boxes anymore but I do find the horrible Winchester boxes but I refuse to buy them.

That's good to know; thanks. I can't believe that I'm saying this about a pump shotgun but is there any way to make the 870 more reliable? My Winchester 1300 cycles the Winchester bird shot loads effortlessly and reliably, as does all my other shotguns including the automatics. It was only my 870 that wouldn't.

There is no smoother or faster pump gun than the 1200/1300 Winchester. I even shot skeet league with mine and that works the hell out of a gun. Never in many thousands of rounds have I had a failure. It gets fed Winchester AA hulls only loaded in various configurations. It has 2 barrels, a 28" and 20",both with choke tubes. I have no need for any other shotgun and with the newish Blackhawk Compstock it has near zero recoil for my nearly 60 year old shoulder.

I think the issue here is crap ammo. Buy a few cases of Win AA and keep the hulls after shooting them . Have a shotshell reloading friend reload then in the load you want on hand. Anything can be loaded into an AA hull, even slugs. The life of a hull is 5-10 reloads depending on the power level loaded to.

The newer 870's, especially the Express models, can stand some chamber polishing sometimes. In addition, the Winchester bulk loads are known for this in many guns that otherwise don't have issues. It can be the steel or aluminum heads not shrinking back down, but also the plastic gets sticky in hot chambers.

This is a well-known issue with that ammo and late-model 870's, especially the Express ones. Youtube has many vids on this. First classic issue is chamber smoothness- polish out tool marks and roughness. Procedure varies with severity of condition. One can start with wet/dry of various grits all the way through steel wool and polish. Replacing extractors with real steel ones or even Police 870 versions can help. Lastly, for defense, buy good, real brass, ammo. Federal's Flitecontrol 00 buck is ususally excellent (patterning) and works well. Ive fixed many sticky guns this way. Same works in revolver chambers and semi-auto barrels. If you can't see your reflection in the part, it's too rough

The newer Remington 870's from about the past 10 years aren't made so well. More and more plastic. Poor craftsmanship and quality.

The Winchester 1200 and 1300, while an improvement over the newer 870's, is still essentially a POST '64 cheapened version of the Winchester model 12. Do yourself a favor and find a nice used model 12 (or Winchester 1897 for that matter). You'll see what quality feels and functions like again.

I had the same issue with my 870 Tactical and cheap ammo. I noticed a lot of plastic build up in the chamber after a few rounds went through. I tore the gun down and used a flex gone on my drill with WD40 to lube while keeping the speed down. The flex hone shafts will bend just good enough to get in the chamber, just go show and keep checking. As mentioned above, the machine Mark's were fairly deep and I just went until it was fairly smooth, but not totally gone. I didn't want to oversize the chamber too much. I also use a teflon based lube before shooting and I've never had a problem since.

Very much the same concept I use when polishing a feed ramp on a pistol with a soft cone and metal polish.